As there is -still- no reddit island business plan, there is no real reason to be looking for physical islands yet. We need a comprehensive mathematical analysis on how to make a profitable (or at least sustainable) island living.

And ive said that since day 1.

Later in the discussion – which you also need to read in its entirety — he accuses his fellow Reddit Island enthusiasts of being a bunch of unserious dabblers in the fine art of island-utopia-making:

You need a comprehensive plan, contracts vetted by lawyers on both sides, etc.

Honestly this whole project has screamed AMATEURS from the start. Its a real shame since its a cool as hell idea.

Property buying and selling, rights, early adopters, etc’, what’s the current consensus on that? If I “donate”/”pledge” $100 right now, will it assure anything for when the time comes? Will I get a small place where I can build my hut? or will I get a 2 bedroom apartment in a 50 stories high sky scraper?

In still another thread, Reddit Islanders reject one island in Florida – on sale for $42,000 — as too small, though one suggests they could build a tall tower on it to accommodate more Redditors.

Comments

Argenti: I mean the less than 7.3 kind; with the caveat that I live in places which are prepared for them. I used to live in Cleveland, and I’ve lived in the Mojave (as well as the time I spent in the Cradle of Civilisation). I’ve lived through windstorms that were more than capable of killing people; and certainly made one miserable. 80 MPH gusts, and steady winds of 35MPH for days on end is it’s own minor hell.

Of all the weather/disasters (earthquakes, fires, flash floods, wind, blizzards… BTW, I was born in Pittsburgh), I’ll take tornadoes last.

I’m imagining the methane explosions and ammonia inhalation deaths on top of issues around the water table, pit filling, proper use of lime/ash/sawdust, etc, from redditors improperly building and maintaining outhouses.

No kidding. My dad and his family didn’t have running water until he was a teenager in the early 1960’s. They couldn’t afford to pump their outhouse holes, so when the hole was filled with poo, they’d just dig another hole and move the outhouse, if it was still in good enough condition to save. Dad said that was a gross job. In winter nights, they’d use chamber pots, but he said they stunk up the house. He also hated how the whole family would only bathe once a week and share the same tub of water, so if you go first you’re water was warm and clean. If you were last, the water was dirty.

My mother in law didn’t live in a house with indoor plumbing until she got married in 1980. Her parents lived on a farm and it wasn’t close enough to any towns to get water service. She also says how they also made their own soap, sewed clothes from potato sacks, never visited a dentist, and people had to deliver their own babies at home with no assistance*.

I’m so glad to have been born when I was and live where I do. I wouldn’t give up living in Joplin and having city privilege for anything. I am spoiled on having grocery stores, an HVAC system, dental care, police and fire protection, and clean water.

I hate tornadoes… I’ll take earthquakes, any day of the week. (I’ve lived through both).

It would depend on how strong the earthquake or tornado was. If we’re comparing a catastrophic earthquake of 9 on the Richter scale vs. an EF5 twister, I would actually choose the tornado. The reason is at least you might get some lead time on the tornado, while you won’t with the earthquake. I had 20 minutes warning before the Joplin tornado, but didn’t actually take the threat seriously until I could hear the roar. As long as someone isn’t complacent about sirens and tornado warnings, they would probably get at least a few minutes to try to take cover and hunker down. You don’t get enough time to go to public storm shelters, though. With an earthquake, there’s not much you can do.

*I am not saying anything against the home birth movement here. I know that most home birthers still have the assistance of a midwife and can transport to a hospital in the case of complications. I am skeptical about the safety of unassisted home birth, though.

The thing is, you have lead time, of a sort, against an earthquake. You have years, decades, even. All it takes is a bit of political will, to make it safer.

I recall, all too well, all the hours spent hunkered down, hiding in the cellar, because of tornado warnings.

One of the first things I asked (at eight years old) when we moved to California was where the cellar was. When told there wasn’t one, I was dumbstruck for a moment and asked, “where do you go when the tornaodoes come?”

And yes, while there isn’t much to do when an earthquake happens, a well built building will do pretty well, and the sort of collapse a well built building has is moderately predictable. I recall the way in which the houses in the Marina (the worst hit part of SF in the Loma Prieta quake), sort of fell straight down. They went from being two stories, to one.

But all the pieces were in the same area. Nothing was hauled half a mile and piled up. Nothing was stripped the way I recall the apartment building that was peeled of the wall, and left to look like a doll’s house. The level of apparent caprice,married to the level of total devastation… entire swathes of cities scoured to a patch of empty; well cluttered, dirt.

I’ve been in several earthquakes in the near 6 range. It’s a rough ride when the happen, but then it’s over. I can take that better then the pregnant pause; and the hoping it won’t come after me, as I wait for the all clear.

Oops, the first paragraph was a quote from darksidecat. I goofed up my blockquotes, like always.

Yeah, so my mother in law thinks me and my husband are soft because we grew up with luxuries and don’t know how to wring a chicken’s neck, turn wheat into flour, wash clothes with a wringer, or anything else like that she used to do. It’s true we lived a pampered life, but we set up her DVD player for her, taught her how to use a crockpot, and taught her how to use a cell phone. So each generation might lose some skills but gain new skills as technology changes.

re indoor plumbing. My mother didn’t have it in her house until she was 10 years old, so that was 1958, in Cleveland (E45th and Superior). The pump wasn’t removed/capped until the 1990s (it was great water).

I think, from stories family tell, that it wasn’t the last house in the neighborhood to get indoor plumbing.

Pecunium — as long as the building it likely to stay intact enough, yeah better than tornadoes. The flash floods are so much fun though /sarcasm (I happened to be on a 6 mile round trip when last summer’s hit, was actually *just* telling my mother that I’ve never seen anything like it) — how’s 35 mph sand compare to snow? Haven’t ever got caught out in a nor’easter, so idk (did get stuck at an ex’s when amtrak closed once, but still, indoors) — that seems it’s own hell regardless what it’s throwing around.

Kendra — as I’d said above, I’ve debated trying to homestead, even with modern tech it’s a full time job — that sun-mar toilet solves some of the outhouse issues, but you still need to toss in sawdust (though I think they recommend newspaper).

And I’m agreeing with Kendra on the 9+ vs EF5 — I’d want that brief lead time to run for the basement at least.

Re: home birth — I think there’s an infinite difference between choosing it and having no other choice, particularly since most people won’t choose it if they’re a high risk pregnancy — midwife assistance and transport can be lifesaving when needed, I’d be wary of not even having the option. (Not that reddit can get the girls in any sense XD )

I managed to sleep right through last summer’s strange east coast earthquake, imagine my disappointment to have missed that. Which is weird, I should probably be concerned a bit, but it wasn’t bad enough to do more than wiggle a few bricks out of buildings. Out for a 6 mile walk when a flash flood hits though? That was something I’d rather never do again (I happened to be relatively high up when it hit thankfully, but holy shit was that some impressive rain) — yeah I’ll take earthquakes over flash floods, in theory anyways, in practice it would appear I’m a dunce XD

Kind of wish I’d tried to photograph the oncoming wall of rain, but I was too busy burying my camera in my bag (it survived, somehow)

So, which sort of dangerous weather do the redditers want? They can add tsunamis to the list since it’d be an island

“The Iraqi sandstorms were a special kind of hell.” — yeah I will definitely pass on that, the stripping paint and blinding makes too much sense now that I think about sandblasting buildings and the like

“I had just moved when the earthquake happened.” — you mean the east coast one? So you haven’t had a real New England winter yet? Enjoy the 6′ drifts when you do (that’s not that sarcastic, shoving them sucks but they’re so much fun)

“My life sounds somewhat incredible when the individual pieces are placed cheek-by-jowl, all willy-nilly.” — yeah I have a similar problem, slept through Gloria (and to my mother’s amazement as I was only months old), was mere yards from CT’s only F4 in memory, so many nor’easters, slept through that earthquake, and somehow managed to be crossing a damned bridge when the flash flood rains hit — and that’s just the weather related parts

We’re under a special weather advisory currently btw, time for another thunderstorm, looks like I’m going to get the center of it any time now too, wouldn’t be surprised if I lose net (fucking comcast)

My mom did grow up with electricity and running water, but she was born in ’64 and remembers when a lot of people in the area didn’t have it. My grandmother’s aunt paid for the house to be remodeled to have it put in as a wedding present. I lived in that house for almost the first year or so of my life, but it burned down when I was a baby and I only have memories of it as a half burned thing that we weren’t supposed to go into because it was dangerous, but did, because being told not to made it extra cool. Underneath the wood paneling and wallpaper, it had those big, thick wood beams without nails. The oldest rooms actually had log cabin like walls underneath.

The electric company that most people use is a not for profit co-op founded with mostly federal cash, so it has more specific than most rules about providing power to people who are far out and about not shutting off power in certain situations (it’s actually a New Deal remnant, but it was expanded a lot in the late 60s).

Pecunium — earthquake then hurricane has to be last august — NYC flooded a few days before we did, I can’t seem to dig up whether it was the same storm system or not though. (And you want weird? I’m apparently just north of the current one, I can hear the thunder but the sun, and the bird, are back out)

Re: running water, I’m going to bring up all these stories the next time my brother complains about the limitations of our aunt having well water, yeah ok you can’t run the dishwasher and clothes washer on the same day, but she has both.

darksidecat — your old house sounds like an interesting bit of “build over the previous layer” architecture, that aunt’s house is like that too. She’s got all sorts of random things hanging from the support beams in the first floor ceiling, because why not in a house with giant visible beams? Does have to be the beams, or it’d go right through the floor upstairs…having a swing full of stuffed animals hanging from your living room ceiling is pretty cool though.

I honestly can’t imagine a house without electricity or running water, call that camping where I’m from XD

As for winter… I laugh at your NE winters. I’ve done winter in Ottawa, and I’ve spent winters in Cleveland. Lake effect snow has been known to make it possible (or needful, depending on how one looks at it) to kneel down to work on the powerlines at the top of the poles.

Pecunium — snow kind of all evens out once it’s above your head, and a 5′ drift is over my sightline *is short* — but yes, nor’easters really aren’t that bad. Neither was the so call snowpocalypse — that was a damned joke, we had calls for 2’+ and our mayor went out to get drunk for his birthday and was unreachable, so plows didn’t roll until nearly a day after the snow started, I spent the entire time laughing that it wasn’t the snow’s fault the mayor is a fool.

Pecunium — earthquake then hurricane has to be last august — NYC flooded a few days before we did, I can’t seem to dig up whether it was the same storm system or not though. (And you want weird? I’m apparently just north of the current one, I can hear the thunder but the sun, and the bird, are back out)

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